referral taxonomy code

ref_tax_cd

claims

Updated 5/16/2026

Definition

The provider specialty classification for a provider-to-provider patient direction. Used as a unique reference to identify and track the referral across healthcare systems. This field is commonly used in electronic health records (EHR), healthcare information systems (HIS), and clinical data warehouses for referral management and reporting.

Standard Abbreviation

ref_tax_cd

Database Usage

-- Example column naming
CREATE TABLE claims (
  clm_id VARCHAR(50),
  ref_tax_cd VARCHAR(20),  -- referral taxonomy code (max 20 chars)
  ...
);

-- Example in SELECT
SELECT
  clm_id,
  ref_tax_cd as referral_taxonomy_code
FROM claims;

Common uses in healthcare data

Claims adjudication and remittance processing
837P/837I/837D claim file parsing and validation
Revenue cycle management and denial analytics
CMS cost report and Medicare cost reporting
Payer contract performance and underpayment analysis

Example database column name

ISO-11179 snake_case standard

-- Recommended column name
ref_tax_cd

-- Example DDL
CREATE TABLE healthcare_data (
  record_id   VARCHAR(50)   NOT NULL,
  ref_tax_cd   VARCHAR(20),  -- referral taxonomy code (max 20 chars)
  created_dt  TIMESTAMP     NOT NULL DEFAULT NOW()
);

Column names follow the ISO-11179 naming convention: lowercase, underscore-separated, using the standard abbreviation as a prefix where applicable.

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